


benshi

by darkdropout



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1930s, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-23
Updated: 2019-03-23
Packaged: 2019-11-28 16:02:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18210491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkdropout/pseuds/darkdropout
Summary: In which Ohno is a 1930s Japanese silent film star and Nino is a benshi who often performs for Ohno's movies at the oldest movie theater in Tokyo





	benshi

**Author's Note:**

> author's note: benshi (弁士) were Japanese performers who provided live narration for silent films (both Japanese films and Western films)

As soon as there is a lull in the music, Aiba rushes forward with Nino’s elbow in a viselike grip that makes it impossible for him not to be dragged along as Aiba pushes and bumps his way through the crowd.  
  
“You’re Ohno Satoshi-san, right?” Aiba asks too loudly, too informally, in the too small space he leaves when he comes to a stop in front of the man sitting alone at the bar – the man that is clearly Ohno Satoshi.  
  
Ohno blinks once, slowly. His eyes are glassy and unfocused, no surprise after the number of times Nino had seen the man call the bartender over in the last twenty minutes.  
  
Not that Nino is one to talk, feeling warm and fuzzy with alcohol himself. It's the only reason he’s somehow still standing here instead of smacking Aiba and making a run for it.  
  
Ohno hasn’t answered the question regarding his identity, but Aiba – like Nino – needs no confirmation. This man is a dead ringer for his likeness in the large illustrated poster for the film _Samurai Yori Shinobi_ that Nino stole from the cinema almost two years ago, and that has been pasted to the wall of their small studio apartment, over Nino’s futon, ever since.  
  
Nino feels his cheeks grow hot just thinking of it.  
  
“Nino and I have seen all your films! Right, Nino?” Aiba exclaims. He shakes Nino’s elbow for emphasis and the jarring movement makes the floor grow unsteady beneath Nino's feet. He shouldn’t have had so much to drink.  
  
Ohno’s hazy gaze wanders over to Nino. His eyes widen. He smiles.  
  
“I know you,” Ohno says, the words slurring a little as they leave his lips.  
  
Nino feels goose bumps break out across his skin, from head to toe. He’s never heard Ohno’s voice before. Stranger yet, as a _benshi_ , he’s only ever heard his own voice coming out of Ohno’s mouth.  
  
The feeling is surreal. Beneath him, the floor begins to wobble again and for once he’s glad for Aiba’s firm grip on him.  
  
Ohno is still smiling, smiling wider – his cinema poster smile. “You’re the _benshi_ ,” he says.  
  
“Huh?” is all Nino can manage in reply. Ohno's voice is different than he expected. It's softer, gentler, although now a little rough from drinking. His Japanese is far from proper. He has the vocabulary of an old man from Kansai.  
  
“You work at Denkikan,” Ohno says, happily.  
  
Aiba is looking back and forth between the two of them in confused amusement. He asks Ohno the question that Nino, a man who speaks for a living, cannot quite form for himself at the moment. "How do you know that?”  
  
Ohno takes a long time to answer, his pupils swimming, bobbing, in a sheen of liquor. “I go there a lot – ah, not to watch my own films,” he clarifies, with some obvious embarrassment. “I like to go see American films.”  
  
He’s still looking at Nino. “I always go to see you perform,” Ohno says. “You’re my favorite.”  
  
Nino, to his credit, is not so drunk as to fail to notice the irony of this situation.


End file.
